San Pedro de Atacama (Desert) & Pucon (Lake District), Chile

San Pedro de Atacama is the entry point for all travellers into Chile from Bolivia... and boy does this town know it! A funky little town, with a small plaza, church and numerous dusty streets full of overpriced bars, restaurants and tour agencies - food and drink prices here, could easily be compared to the UK.

A quick stop in an overpriced San Pedro (1 night), and then it was off to Calama where we were catching a flight to Santiago, to kick start a day ´in transit´ before reaching our destination, the South of Chile. We hadn´t always planned to travel to the Lake District, however, our travel bugs got the better of us and we were keen to see what is meant to be the best part of Chile. It was the best decision we could have made - Pucon is amazing!

Pucon is THE adventure town of the Lake District, with enough adrenalin activities to keep you busy for days if not weeks! With just 2 days in Pucon, we were eager to choose our activities carefully. First up, Canopy... 20 minutes outside of Pucon, we were stuck in a harness & helmet and sent on our merry way - 3km of canopy wires allowing us to swing through dense forest like Tarzan (or Jane!). The views on the way (if you could bare to look down) were of the forest and the Villarrica Volcano.

After 6 canopy swings and feeling like pros, we landed back on safe ground feeling thoroughly pumped and in need of some well deserved beers in the gorgeous sunshine. Once the sun went down, we were blessed with clear skies full of millions of stars and the volcano in the distance glowing red with magma spurting from the top - a scene that I will struggle to forget. This sight made me even more excited, as the next day we were climbing the Villarrica Volcano - one of the most active volcanoes in South America!

Villarrica is 25km from Pucon and situated in Parque Nacional Villarrica. The volcano is 2847 metres high, and our climb began at 1800 metres. The hike itself was fairly easy with a series of switchbacks allowing the snow filled ascent to be up gentle slopes. The hike however, was made much, much tougher (on the verge of dangerous) as strong gusts of winds were building up the nearer the top you climbed (typical, the day we climbed a volcano the weather was horrendous!). We were climbing above the clouds, and fighting hard against the winds to stop us being blown over, only our imaginations could have told us the views below the clouds - forests, moutains, lakes, maybe? Who knows, we certainly couldn´t see them!

After 4 hours of climbing we finally reached the summit, the mouth of the volcano! Large amounts of smoke was bellowing out the huge hole, however, no magma was to be seen on this day :o(. After a quick stop here, and before the wind could blow us into the crater we began our 2 hour descent - a fun, blinding and freezing experience. The quickest way to come down from the top of the volcano was to slide down on your bum... this was the easiest and most fun option! Snow managed to get everywhere and once we reached the bottom we were tired, cold and soaked to the skin - still we had made a great acheivement, we climbed to the top of an active volcano (not to mention the treacherous weather!). All that was left to do, was to get home, have a hot shower, eat and sleep!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Bariloche, Argentina for much, much more of the same!!! Bring it on!